The Genomics Era: From Reference Genomes to Pan-Genomic Graphs

Dear Colleagues,

Since entering the "genomic era", up to now, the scientific community has relied on a single "reference" genome for each species, used as the basis for a wide range of genetic analyses. With the number of sequenced genomes steadily increasing, the concept of "reference" genomes has been reconsidered; presently, the idea of using a "pangenome" to describe the complete set of variations in a species appears promising.

This Special Issue of Biomolecules focuses on new insights pangenomic analyses have brought into a wide range of topics, from microbiology and virology to human genetics, as well as concerning the exploration of pangenomics’ potential in aiding human disease diagnostics.

Studies investigating core and dispensable genomes across multiple disciplines are welcome, as well as researches presenting the implementation of computational pangenomic approaches and novel statistical methods also aimed at highlighting the presence of the signature of selection at the genome level. In detail, the topics of interest range from metagenomics and illustrating core or dispensable genomes potentially related to microbial pathogenicity or niche adaptation, to pantranscriptomics for a more compact representation of transcriptomes, up to the gain of insights regarding human genetics by linking whole genomic variations to human diversity, diseases and other related topics.

Both research (in particular) and review articles proposing novelties or overviews, respectively, are welcome.

Prof. Dr. Chiara Scapoli
Guest Editor

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